https://www.eastidahonews.com/2024/09/church-leader-charged-with-sexual-abuse-after-allegedly-giving-naked-massages-to-multiple-boys/

"A 45-year-old man has been arrested after police say he gave naked massages to multiple young boys.

Virgil Larson is charged with five counts of felony child sexual abuse.

Court documents say on July 3, a Bannock County Sheriff’s deputy was told of a possible sexual abuse case after “several boys had possibly been touched inappropriately by a neighbor and church leader who was giving them massages.”

Court documents say Larson was the first counselor in the leadership of his local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ward.

Three minor victims reported the abuse to their ward bishop. The Sheriff’s Office learned about the abuse from the Kirton McConkie Law Office in Lehi, Utah, which represents the church, according to police reports."


Kirton and McKonkie reporting it? Is the bad publicity around child sex abuse finally getting to the church?

Creepy! Those poor kids. It made me sad that one kid said he started praying instead of screaming and running away. They are so conditioned to be obedient to church authority figures, it's disgusting.

"Each victim said Larson never touched their genitals but said he often came very close."
It sounds like he was grooming them for the temple washing and anointing! Just kidding.

Seriously, what kind of parent would think it is OK to drop off their kid at some guy's house for a massage? How naïve and trusting can you get. Sheesh.

This happened in my town of Pocatello, so it will be interesting to see if law enforcement goes easy on him or uses him as an example.

There were enough victims that word of this guy would have gotten out in this town. I don't think the church could hide this one with a payoff. Maybe that was one factor in reporting it to law authorities. Or, just maybe they are learning to do the right thing. Still, the bishop should have immediately called law enforcement instead of the church's law firm.

The consequences will (should be) determined by the court, not by LE.

I agree with you that the bishop should have gone directly to CPS or law enforcement as opposed to calling Kirton McConkie.

Frankly, the bishop should have been bypassed and LE contacted directly.

Their FIRST concern was to protect the church and not the child. That is obvious or they would have called the police before even sitting down.

Yes, and that is really the fundamental problem.

A member in my ward (branch at the time?) was growing MJ in her garage, cops found out & busted her & non-Mo hub; I don’t think she was jailed (first offense, small children at home).

eta: the Quantity was far beyond ‘personal -family’ use, this was easily a grow-for- profit operation.

As I recall, ChurchCo wasn’t involved, at least openly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2024 02:37AM by GNPE.

"He later admitted that there “may have been times when (the victim’s genitalia) were covered with a towel and as he pushed on an area of the body, it would move, and the covered genitalia would touch his hand” but stated there was “no intention."

Hmmm "no intentions"? In my opinion that the covered genitalia thouched his hand was very much intentionally. Will he loose his calling as first councilor? Will he get disfollowshiped? Butt massages to several boys.

Yes, that exact sentence was a giant eye roll when I read it too. Sure. There was no intention. LOL.

"On July 5, a woman met with a deputy and reported that Larson had also been massaging her son. According to police reports, she 'did not think anything of it since (Larson) is a trusted individual with the church.'”

How naive do you have to be to believe that?

"Will he get disfollowshiped?"


Depends on his tithing history and amounts.

Heck. He'll probably get elected or appointed for something around here. I'm only partially kidding.

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/freeaccess/police-local-church-youth-leader-arrested-for-sexually-abusing-five-teenage-boys/article_2a1eea3e-75dc-11ef-bf55-ebb2e0cec904.html

There are some details in this article.

"During the interviews, the children disclosed that Larson was the young men’s program leader for their church and would regularly contact them to play basketball at the church, the report says."

Power of discernment he was young men's president. Will he at least get an annotation on his membership record that he can not ever have callings with children and youth?

https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/511307

There are 13 wards in this man's stake. Yes, I will send all 13 bishops an email asking for an annotation on his membership record.